Die construction



April 27, 1943. H. FORD ETAL 2,317,597

DIE CONSTRUCTION Filed July 17, 1940 2 sheets-Sheet 1 111// llll//l//l//l/ lll/11111111114 I Wm( urn :CVS /2 a@ L:' 'L 'INVENTO u H il 1 [l BY @QQ-5654?* ArToRNEYs'.

vApril 27, 1943. H. FORD ETAL 2,317,597

DIE CONSTRUCTION Filed July 17, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 59h/7 Wnq/ fr); gv NTORS.

BY @1M a www,

Patented Apr. 27, 1943 A ,l

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DIE CONSTRUCTION Henry Ford, Dearborn, and Robert A. Boyer, De-

troit, Mich., assignors to Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application July 17, 1940, lSerial No. 345,894

3 Claims. (Cl. 18-38) The object of our invention is to provide a die vention consists of the arrangement, construction construction especially adapted for use in moldand combination of the various parts of our iming relatively large plastic articles. proved device, as described in this specication,

In the molding of such articles it is necessary claimed in our claims, and illustrated in the acthat the plastic material be compressed in a die companyingr drawings, in which:

under a relatively high pressure, so that the die Figure 1 is a plan view of our improved die conmust be formed of a material having high comstruction. pressive strength. The plastic material must also Figure 2 is a sectional view, taken upon the line be heated to a temperature of 200 or 300 F. 2--2 of Figure 1. during the curing process while the material is i Figure 3 is a sectional View, taken upon the line held in compression at this heat. The molded 3-3 of Figure 1.

ai ticle must then be cooled down to substantially Figure 4 is a plan view of one of the induction room temperature before it is safe to remove same heating coils used in each half 0f the die and,

from the die. Figure 5 is a plan view of one of the die linings,

Because of these limitations it has heretofore 1;, showing the associated cooling coil.

been necessary to provide iron die blocks having Referring to the accompanying drawings, We

mold cavities therein which are machined to the have used the reference numerals I0 and Il to shape of the part being formed. Means for indicate, respectively, 4bored shape top and bringing these blocks up to temperature must be bOttOm die housings. These hOuSugs are fOrmed provided and water cooling arranged so that the .m of steel plates which are Welded together. Each dies may be rapidly cooled down after each moldhousing is Several times larger than the part to ing cycle. The disadvantage of such die conbe molded and forms the outer Walls of the comstructLon for large articles is apparent because pleted die. The housing l0 iS adapted to be inthe relatively large volume of the die requires an verted over the housing I I, as shown in Figure 2,. enorm ous amount of heat to bring these die memo The hOuSIlgS l0 and l l are Cast With monolithic bers up to Working temperature. This heat is, o f blocks i2 and I3 therein, these blOCkS being course, lost when the dies are cooled down between formed of Portland cement. When the housings each cycle. Furthermore, much time is required are assembled, one on the other, the top Surface to heat and cool the dies between each cycle of 0f the lower block I3 is complementary t0 the operation so that this materially slows down the n bottom surface of the upper block I2 to form aA production of parts from such dies. conventional mold parting line. The die cavity The Object 0f our invention is 150 provide a die is'formed in these abutting surfaces. A relatively which will withstand the pressure involved in thin sheet metal cavity liner I4 is embeddedinthe moldnig relatively large articles of plastic mauDDer face of the block I3, and a liner I5 is liketerial and which may be rapidly heated to` op- 3, WiSe .aSt in the parting face 0f the b lOCk l2, these @rating temperature and cooled down two hners SO Shaped a, dle cavity iS the loss of only a fraction of the heat heretofore fOlmed therebetween. required- The die shown is adapted to produce a motor stili a further object of our invention is to provehicle glove-box door of curved section, this vide aplastic die having a mold cavity formed from 4o dOOl being flat in one plane, aS ShOWIl ill Figure 3, relatively thin sheet metai which will have ampie and Curved 1n the other plane, as shown 1n Flestrength for the purpose intended. When iron ure 2. The liners I4 and I5 form the die surfaces, dies are provided itis necessary to finish such the cement blocks I2 and I3 simply SuDpOIting dies upon a profiling machine and, in the case of these liner members- The die, When in the DOSidies of large size, the amount of Work entailed tion ShOWn, iS CIOSed. at Which time the die CaVity is considerable. With our improved construction IB is of the size and shape 0f the desired molded it is only necessary to line the die cavity with article.

comparatively thin sheet metal which may be It W111 b uOted from Figure 5 that nonmduchammered and ied t0 Shape An enormous savtive cooling coils I'I are brazed to the 1mbedded ing i; die Cost is had Where the dies are used in surface of each of the liners I4 and I5, so that form'ng only a relatively few parts. Water Which may oW through these coils will Still a further object of our invention is to cool the adjacent liners in a minimum of time. provide a die construction which is brought up to These C0115 may be fabricated from'cOpper. brass. temperature by induction heating. High frealuminum or any other nonmductlve metal. In quencrA alternating current coils induce energy 5 the present COTlStIuCtlCm, We prefer to make them into the above-described sheet metal cavity 1inof brass or copper. which may be readily soldered ings t) rapidly heat such lining to operating temto the back of the liners t0 improve the heat perature Without heating the remainder of the die C OnduCtlOn therethIOugh. The Word nonlnducappreciably. tive as used above is to be construed as covering With these and other objects in view, our inthose metals which, under the influence of inductive heating currents, are heated to lower temperatures than that obtaining in the steel face to which they are attached. It has been established that the penetration of the inductive current in a metallic object varies directly as the square root of the resistivity of the object and inversely as the square root of the current in the inductor. Comparison of the resistivities of copper, brass, or aluminum with the steel used in the die face will show that the penetration in the cooling coil would be substantially less. Furthermore, these materials are also nonmagnetic, and it has likewise been established that the comparable heating of nonmagnetic materials requires higher frequencies than obtained for the heating of magnetic materials. Flowing from these two characteristics, it will be found that with a given frequency and current in the inductor, the heat penetration in the noninductive" coil will be much less than that in the steel die and the heating eiect on the coil will also be less thanthat of the die. As a consequence. the tendency to form areas of unequal heating over the face of the steel die by reason of the coil secured therebehind is minimized. Each of the coils is provided with inlet and outlet connections IB and I9 respectively, which extend outwardly through suitable openings in the sides of the housing. These connections are fastened to flexible rubber tubes which extend to a suitable source of cooling water. Thus, when cold water is supplied to the coils I1 the liners I4 and I5 will be cooled very rapidly because, the liners being thin, the amount of heat therein is very small.

It will also be noted that we have provided a pair of induction heating coils 20 and 2I, which coils are imbedded in the cement blocks I2 and I3, respectively. The coil 20 is of such shape that it follows the general contour of the liner I5, while the coil 2i is likewise so shaped that it follows the contour of the liner I4.

These coils are formed of copper tubing and are imbedded in the cement a couple of inches below the liner members which they are designed to heat. Cooling water is run through these coils in the usual manner for induction heating.

In assembling the lower half of the die the housing I I is filled about two-thirds full of cement and the coil 2| is imbedded therein. More cement is poured over the coil 20 and the liner I4 imbedded therein. 'I'he liner I4 has previously been brazed to the coil II. The top surface of the cement is then smoothedl off to form a relatively flat abutting surface. The cement block is then allowed to harden.

The upper half of the die is made using the housing I as a cope, the cement being used in the same Way that sand is used in ordinary foundary practice to form a mold.

In the operation of our improved mold structure the coils 20 and 2| are connected with a suitable source of cooling water and then energized by high frequency alternating current. This induces energy into the thin liners I4 and I5 to thereby heat these liners to their Working temperature very quickly. A temperature of around 350 F. is usually required for molding most plastics and this is obtained in a very few minutes even with large dies. The cement blocks I2 and I3, being nonmetallic and relatively poor heat conductors, are not heated to any appreciable extent by this operation so that the main bodies of the blocks remain cold.

After the dies have been heated to the desired amount of plastic powder is placed in the bottom die cavity and then the top member brought down into place. Preforms are often used instead oi loose powder. A relatively high pressure must be exerted upon the die members while the powder is curing but the cement is amply able to stand up under the required pressure.

After the mold has been held under compression for the desired length of time the current is disconnected from the heating coils and cool water is forced through the coils I'I to thereby rapidly cool the liners I4 and I5. This, of course,

` cools the part which has Just been formed and temperature they are opened and the correct causes the part to set. The dies may then be immediately parted and the article removed. The die is again heated and the aforementioned sequence of operations repeated.

' Among the many advantages arising from the use of this die structure it may be well to mention that these dies are relatively inexpensive to produce, costing only a fraction of that heretofore necessary to produce iron dies for this work. Furthermore, the cost of heating and cooling these dies is only a fraction of that required to cool iron dies because only the relatively thin liners need beheated and cooled, whereas it is necessary with iron dies to heat and cool the whole die structure.

Still a further advantage results in that the cement permits the introduction of induction heating coils to much better advantage than could be done with a solid iron die structure.

Some changes may be made in the arrangement, construction and combination of the various parts of our improved die without departing from the spirit of our invention and it is our intention to cover by our claims such changes as may reasonably be included within the scope thereof.

We claim as our invention:

1. A mold of the character described comprising, a monolithic block having a die cavity formed therein, said cavity having a relatively thin steel lining, the outer surface of which is imbedded in said block, a cooling coil fixed to the outer surface of said lining, and an induction coil imbedded in said block adjacent to said lining.

2. A mold of the character described comprising a monolithic block of material having a relatively low coeilicient of thermal conductivity and having a die cavity formed therein, a relatively thin steel lining fitting within said cavity, a plurality of spaced cooling tubes adjacent the back of said lining and secured thereto, said cooling` tubes being imbedded in the material ofl said block, and an induction coil imbedded in the material of said block, spaced from said cooling tubes.

3. In a mold of the character described comprising a monolithic block, one face of said block having a die cavity formed therein, a thin sheet of steel lining said cavity, the exposed face thereof defining the die surface, a plurality of spaced cooling tubes adjacent the back of said thin sheet and connected thereto, said tubes being formed of a nonmagnetic material of low resistivity, an electrical induction coil imbedded in said block and spaced inwardly from said cooling tubes, whereby said lining may be heated by induction from said coil and cooled by fluid circulated through said tubes, the temperature of said monolithic block remaining substantially unlchanged throughout.

HENRY FORD. ROBERT A. BOYER. 

